Transcript
A muscled desert warrior looks across the sands at sunset. A servant in fine white robes approaches him.
Warrior: If only I had someone to watch the sunset with.
Servant: Warrior, I’m here on behalf of Ellena, the only daughter of the Iron Chieftain.
Warrior: You mean the chieftain who united the five clans and tamed a giant snake?
Servant: The same. Ellena complains that since her mother died, her father has been so lost to grief that he’s kept her closely guarded in the palace.
Warrior: Tell her she will be confined no more! For her father shall find me a worthy suitor.
In a throne room, the warrior kneels before the chieftain, holding out a bouquet of flowers. Nearby, a little girl claps her hands excitedly.
Warrior: Great Chieftain, be no longer lost in grief, for my love will soothe your wounds!
Ellena: Yay!
P.S. Our bills are paid by our wonderful patrons. Could you chip in?
I approve of this love story!
Nice twist, Bunny and Chris!
When the warrior just multi-classed into bard and is eager to show off.
I saw that one coming! But I like it nonetheless.
I didn’t see that one coming, and it cracked me up!
It does makes much more sense for the suitor to ask for the hand of the king he’s heard so many great things about, than to ask for the hand of a girl he doesn’t know anything about except for her father’s identity. Yet I still inferred the later… Heteronormative society, you have corrupted me.
Cue to Oglaf’s Kronar (+18)
I approve of this reference
I approve of this approval.
Imagine if the chieftain had been a woman instead, the warrior a woman, and the daughter a son. How might that story play out differently in that case?
Not that differently. The pronouns would have changed, apart from that, there’s nothing which would be different at all.
Well, this joke works on both the assumption of heteronormativity, and the normalcy of daughters being given away in marriage. This plot plays out in constant stories, so readers know the trope we’re making fun of.
If we flip all the genders involved, the joke doesn’t really work because there aren’t any expectations being broken. It could still work as a story of course, but not as a four panel joke comic.
Ha! I love it. I’ll admit, I didn’t see it coming. I was expecting the daughter to reject him utterly or order him on an impossible quest or something like that. Great job as always, Bunny and Chris!
Fantastic! Love the proposal.
Wouldn’t go around topless in that sun-drenched setting put him at risk for skin cancer?
I based him on Grignr, who’s got far too much harshly bronzedhide to do something so sissy as burn in the sun! His mighty thews had always served to adequately conquer any foe, after all. :)